The “Everything Everywhere All At Once” star won big at the SAG Awards tonight, which throws Angela Bassett‘s potential Oscar win into question.
The flashy Hollywood event began with a montage of actors, including Curtis, sharing their journeys to fame (and, consequently, SAG membership).
“I got my SAG card when I was 19 years old and signed a seven-year contract with Universal Studios and starred in an ABC TV series called Operation Petticoat,” Curtis explained, adding, “which my father, Tony Curtis—nepo baby!”—appeared in. A year later, I was fired from that TV show, and I thought my life was over.”
Jamie Lee Curtis proudly referring to herself as a nepo baby during her “I am an actor” speech was perfection #SAGAwards pic.twitter.com/5vksrPUHTh
— Spencer Althouse (@SpencerAlthouse) February 27, 2023
Curtis’ acting career, as we all know, was far from over, as she went on to star in John Carpenter’s horror classic Halloween and, more recently, the awards darling Everything Everywhere All At Once. Curtis won the award for playing cranky IRS agent Deirdre in the A24 action comedy, despite being nominated alongside co-star Stephanie Hsu. After yelling “shut up!”
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Curtis took the stage to loud applause from her peers, kissing the film’s star Michelle Yeoh on the lips. But she wouldn’t have it: “Come on! ” she yelled, eliciting even more applause from the audience. “Well, I didn’t mean ‘come on’ more, I meant ‘come on’ like stop,” she jokingly explained.
“This is the best job I ever had,” says “White Lotus” actor F. Murray Abraham, who ends his speech by bellowing, “UNION FOREVER!” pic.twitter.com/IQjEBdgTqQ
— Kyle Buchanan (@kylebuchanan) February 27, 2023
“I’m wearing the wedding ring that my father gave to my mother,” Curtis explained. “By the way, they hated each other. But my sister Kelly and I were created out of love. My father was Hungarian, and my mother was Danish. They had nothing and became these monstrous stars in the industry they adored. “Both of my parents were actors.”
Jamie Lee, the daughter of actors Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh, has been vocal about her disdain for the recent nepotism debate. Curtis claimed in an Instagram post that New York Magazine’s polarizing nepo baby article was “designed to diminish, denigrate, and hurt.”
However, the actress now has a sense of humour about the whole thing—though she is still fighting back.
“I know you’re thinking, ‘Nepo baby,’ when you look at me. That’s why she’s there,’ Curtis explained as she accepted ewher first SAG Award. “But the truth is, I’m 64 years old, and this is just incredible.”
While some speculated that Curtis would split the vote with Hsu, paving the way for Black Panther: Wakanda Forever actress Angela Bassett to sweep the awards season leading up to the Oscars in two weeks, this victory has the Academy Awards leaning towards Everything Everywhere All at Once. The race for Best Supporting Actress is more competitive than ever—can Angela Bassett pull it off?
